People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals aka PETA recently launched a full-blown vendetta-driven campaign against Indian dairy giant, Amul and called for the company to give up on dairy milk and turn to vegan milk production. Now, Amul vice-chairman Valamji Humbal has come out and played on the front foot, urging the Prime Minister to ban the NGO by giving some compelling reasons.
One of the biggest reasons cited by Humbal was that PETA was attempting to ruin the livelihood of 10 crore people by tarnishing the image of the Indian dairy sector and thus it needed to be banned outrightly.
“To ensure that such organisations stop their activities in India, milk producers of Gujarat urge Prime Minister Narendra Modi to initiate necessary action to impose a ban on organisations which are engaged in condemnable activity of tarnishing the image of dairy industry through misinformation campaign and then harm them by encouraging plants of multination companies producing synthetic milk,” said Humbal in a release on Tuesday.
Adding to his statements further, Humbal remarked that the Dairy industry was an important contributor to the GDP, which can be affected ‘adversely’ by misinformation.
“Dairy sector is an important contributor to the GDP of India, but the GDP can be affected adversely by misinformation spread by opportunistic elements like this NGO. Organisations like this are part of the conspiracy to render unemployed the milk producers of India,” said Valamji in a press note.
Citing that livestock’s were an integral part of Indian families, the question of harming them didn’t arise. Humbal added that it is an attempt to break the Indian dairy industry which saves the country from importing milk and milk products. He expressed that the move was prompted by foreign companies and other vested interest groups.
“Indian culture positions livestock as part of their family and raise them as a member of the family. Therefore, the question of cruelty does not arise at all… This entire episode is a misinformation campaign and an attempt to break the Indian dairy industry, which is self-sufficient and thereby saves the country from the trouble of importing milk and milk products and render unemployed 10 crore people who are relying on it. The move appears to have been prompted by various foreign companies,” said Humbal who is also the president of Sarhad Dairy, a member union of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF)
According to reports, PETA puts to death up to 97.4 per cent of the animals in its care in any given year, including those it accepts from members of the public who expect the organisation to provide these helpless animals with a new home. Thus, before sermonising India and Amul, PETA needs to get its house in order to have a leg to stand on when making such vague insinuations.
Read More: Ethical Treatment or Unethical Slaughtering? American Website accuses PETA of killing Cats and Dogs
Reported by TFI last week, PETA wrote a letter to Amul managing director RS Sodhi advising Amul “to benefit from the booming vegan food and milk market”.
“We would again like to encourage Amul to benefit from the booming vegan food and milk market, instead of wasting resources trying to fight the demand for plant-based products that is only growing. Other companies are responding to market changes, and Amul can, too,” PETA said.
Will they give livelihood to 100 million dairy farmers (70% landless) , who will pay for children school fee .. how many can afford expensive lab manufactured factory food made out of chemicals … And synthetic vitamins .. https://t.co/FaJmnCAxdO
— R S Sodhi (@Rssamul) May 28, 2021
The group that does not want you to burst crackers on Diwali as it would hurt the animals, the same PETA that campaigns to ban the old-age tradition of Jallikattu but makes a half-hearted plea against animal slaughter during Eid or keeps mum entirely is surely not the one that should be preaching the cooperative behemoth which has been built from the ground up involving the blood and sweat of ordinary Indians.